Explicit knowledge relevant for larger communities is usually contained in documents. Therefore knowledge dissemination and refinement in larger organizations, communities and societies are often done via the discussion of documents. Usually, a first version of a document is created by an individual or a small group and subsequently handed over to a larger group of relevant people for discussion and feedback. Traditionally, this process has been organized via costly face-to-face meetings or by distributing copies of the discussion document and collecting feedbacks on paper. In the latter case, a discussant can only see the original document and his or her comments, but cannot react to feedback given by others. Therefore, several time-consuming rounds of commenting and/or proponent intervention are necessary for the resolution of ambivalent or conflicting feedback.
Computer-based methods for discussing electronic documents provide all participants with an electronic version of the document and the possibility to insert comments (annotations) electronically at any position. Compared to paper-based discussions these systems have the advantage that all participants can see the current status of the discussion, and can immediately react to feedback given by others so that face-to-face meetings can be simulated even for large groups at low cost.